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L.I.@WORK; For the Jobless, Help From an Unexpected Source

SINCE losing her job as a travel agent last April, Abby Peretz has been living on her savings and unemployment insurance. Last month, Ms. Peretz, who lives in Great Neck, enrolled in a five-session career development workshop at Temple Beth Shalom in Roslyn Heights.

The workshop, called ''Searching for a Job in a Difficult Economy,'' was developed by the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center in East Hills on behalf of Temple Beth Shalom, Temple Sinai in Roslyn Heights and Temple Judea in Manhasset.

Ms. Peretz, who wanted to explore new jobs at the workshop, said she found some sessions ''were better than the others.'' She rated the one on job-hunting techniques as the high point.

''I am trying to break into a new career,'' Ms. Peretz said. ''I've been making the effort, but it's been awful.''

The workshop at Beth Shalom, which cost $15 a session for nonmembers, is notable for the mere fact of its existence. While Jewish community and religious organizations organize thousands of programs a year on Long Island, ranging from recreational groups for single mothers to drug and alcohol counseling, formal assistance in job hunting is usually not one of them.

People who are unemployed or in financial straits rarely bring up the topic with fellow congregants, rabbis and lay leaders say. ''There are many people in our community who have lost their jobs, and others who fear losing theirs,'' said Rabbi Michael White of Temple Sinai. ''Some will come forward and ask for help. But I would suggest that more people are very private about this. People are very reticent to speak publicly about employment problems.''

Last fall, Susan Gold, the director of adult services at Sid Jacobson, broached the topic of unemployment and underemployment among Jews on the North Shore with the rabbis and lay leaders of Temple Beth Shalom, Temple Sinai and Temple Judea. That conversation, she said, led to a $50,000 grant from the UJA-Federation to organize a series of career counseling workshops this year and next. And just as important, she said, the project challenged the taboo against mentioning unemployment.

''The North Shore has a lot of wealth as well as pockets of poverty,'' Ms. Gold said. ''We are a very comfortable community, but a number of people have found themselves adrift'' in a changing economy.

Ms. Gold said she developed the idea for a career counseling program after a synagogue administrator brought the problem to her attention last year. ''I guess people were coming to the temple to get comfort, support and understanding,'' she said. ''Maybe they were also looking for a softening of the dues.''

Rabbi Abner Bergman of Temple Judea said that while the Sid Jacobson program was new, it extends the pastoral counseling tradition into the modern era. Congregants often come to him for spiritual guidance after losing a job, he said, not necessarily for employment advice but because they feel depressed.

He described a recent conversation with a newly unemployed member of his congregation, a conversation that went on for an hour and a half.

''Losing her job -- and this woman was a high-ranking executive -- was a kind of little death for her,'' Rabbi Bergman said. ''Her identity had become tied up in her work. As her rabbi and as her friend, I was helping her regain her sense of her own worth.''

Years ago, he said, a rabbi in his position would have personally intervened to find her a job by tapping personal connections. ''Today,'' he said, ''the role of the rabbi is not to pick up the phone and demand a job for someone. It has to take place in a different manner.''

The Sid Jacobson program, Rabbi Bergman said, exemplified the modern approach. He added that he was all for the program when Ms. Gold brought up the idea at a meeting of the three North Shore synagogues, which have an informal alliance to create social-service programs.

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Temple Beth Shalom offered the use of its building on Tuesday nights, and dates for the job-hunting workshop were scheduled.

Enter Francine Fabricant. A career counselor and Great Neck resident who changed careers herself several years ago -- she once handled public relations for clients like Lucille Roberts, the health-club chain -- Ms. Fabricant organized and ran a similar series last year on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

''I had heard about her and her workshop in New York,'' Ms. Gold said. ''I was about to call her when she called me. She had recently relocated to the Island and wanted to do the workshop here.''

''We agreed it was beshert,'' Ms. Gold said, using the Yiddish word for ''fated'' or ''destined.''

Ms. Fabricant outlined the Manhattan workshop, which taught how to sharpen interviewing skills, expand professional contacts and identify jobs before they are advertised to the public.

Ms. Gold also wanted the workshop to help participants cope with social and family issues involved with unemployment, so she arranged for Laura Greenblatt, one of the center's social workers, to join Ms. Fabricant in running the workshops. Plans call for the series to be repeated, beginning in April.

Ms. Greenblatt said that unemployment was both an economic issue and an emotional one. ''The person who is unemployed often feels angry and helpless,'' she said. ''In addition to the financial effect, unemployment has an emotional impact, and it affects all members of the family.''

Peter A. Manzi, a career counselor in Rochester and a trustee for the North Atlantic region of the National Career Development Association, said that religious organizations in affluent suburbs were disproportionately affected by the current economic downturn.

''People who live in these suburbs were untouchable economically in the past, from the point of view of their wealth and education levels,'' he said. ''But there has been a shrinking of manufacturing, so there are fewer people for managers to manage and less accounting for accountants. You don't need the professional staff anymore.''

''It affects religious organizations when people who used to tithe can't do so anymore,'' he said, ''and people who used to give money to the synagogue start cutting back.''

Deborah Brown-Volkman, a career coach in East Moriches, said that it behooved job aspirants to swallow their pride and exploit any opportunities that can help them in their search. While someone who is active in a church or synagogue might feel uncomfortable asking fellow congregants for help in finding a job, she said, failing to do so means passing up valuable opportunities.

''Much of the time people are networking with people they don't really know,'' she said. In contrast, getting help from people you know at church or synagogue is potentially far better, she said.

In addition, there is also the eyeball factor. ''These are people who know you and will see you again next week,'' she said. ''If they offer to help you, they can't very well hide if they don't come through.''

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A version of this article appears in print on February 22, 2004, on Page LI14 of the National edition with the headline: L.I.@WORK; For the Jobless, Help From an Unexpected Source. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe